The Trial of George Zimmerman

On Thursday afternoon, the country got its first real glimpse of a man who’s captured much of its attention for weeks now. Clad in a grey prison jumpsuit and handcuffs, looking thin, somber, and scared, George Zimmerman barely resembled the two pictures of him that have been circulating in the media. It’s a reminder of something that will be important to keep in mind as this case plays out: we don’t really know how much of what we’ve heard about the shooting of Trayvon Martin is true.

What we do know for sure right now is that Zimmerman has officially been charged with second-degree murder for shooting Martin on February 26th. We know that he will be officially arraigned on May 29th. We know that he is being held without bail for now. And we know that legal experts tend to believe that it will be very hard for Special Prosecutor Angela Corey’s team to get Zimmerman convicted, whether for second-degree murder or some lesser offense.

“Based on the available facts, it’s a huge overreach,” defense attorney John Priovolos told the Miami Herald. There’s a “high likelihood it could be dismissed by the judge even before the jury gets to hear the case,” another defense attorney, Richard Hornsby, told the Associated Press.

A case like this would never have been easy to try. Jurors are unpredictable, especially when it comes to claims of self-defense: they don’t necessarily want to question the judgment of the person who was actually there. There may not be any blockbuster physical evidence, which, in the age of shows like “C.S.I.,” juries have come to demand. Zimmerman’s word about what caused him to shoot Martin may be the only thing the jury has to go on when deliberating about whether it was in fact a case of self-defense—we don’t know yet if there are any independent witnesses to the start of the fight, and Martin, sadly, is not here to tell his side. Florida’s now-infamous “Stand Your Ground” law will only make things harder. On top of all those problems, local police apparently dogged the investigation; who knows whether some key piece of evidence was missed, or was mishandled in a way that will allow Zimmerman’s attorney to use it at trial to establish reasonable doubt?

All of this assumes, of course, that the case gets to the jury. As Hornsby noted, it may not. Zimmerman will be allowed to raise his claim of self-defense under “Stand Your Ground” to a judge before the trial. If the judge finds that claim meritorious, the charges could be thrown out on the spot.

Despite all those difficulties, there are surely people who will not be satisfied unless Zimmerman is convicted and sentenced to the maximum penalty allowed by law—in this case, life in prison. That’s their right. But they may want to keep in mind something Martin’s mother, Sabryna Fulton, said at a press conference his family held Wednesday: “We simply wanted an arrest. We wanted nothing more, nothing less.” That’s what Martin’s family has always said it wanted—the chance for the law to take its course, the chance that local law enforcement didn’t give the case. What happens in the courtroom is a whole other question.